The present invention relates to a rotary internal combustion engine and more particularly to a rotary internal combustion engine with more effective use of time in the engine cycle.
In the typical four cycle internal combustion engine a single piston and cylinder must accommodate four distinctly different events in successive order within the cylinder to deliver power. A fuel air mixture must be sucked into a chamber cool enough so that the fuel does not ignite from an earlier ignition. The mixture must then be compressed in the same chamber as much as possible without causing premature combustion from the heat of compression. Then the compressed fuel air mixture must be ignited in a manner that does not cause a rapid explosion, but rather a slow moving flame front which causes an expansion of the gases. Finally, it must rid this same chamber of the heat and waste products to prepare for the intake of a fresh fuel air mixture.
In order for all this to take place at precise timing, valves must open and close and ignition must take place at just the right time. This is possible only when an engine is running at a constant, reasonable speed and its timing can then be fixed to the time it takes for ignition, combustion and expansion to occur. However, an engine runs at many different speeds and the faster it runs the less time each event has to perform, and at increased speed the events start to overlap into other cycles (for example, having ignition before top dead center) until it becomes impossible to perform properly with maximum efficiency.
In addition, if the engine were running at a constant speed it is possible to supply just the right amount of fuel and cause ignition at just the right time for that speed to catch and consume all of the fuel before it is released into the atmosphere. However, in automotive engines the engine is constantly changing speed and it is impossible to have just the right amount of fuel and ignition and expansion to totally consume all the fuel before the next cycle takes place. This results in poor emission control and unburned hydrocarbons.
Still another problem with the conventional internal combustion engine concerns the necessity to reverse direction of movement of pistons, valves, etc. In the case of the piston, for example, at top dead center the piston starts to move down from its stop position, then is accelerated to its maximum velocity of movement, followed by its decelerating and reversal of direction of movement. The valves and the fuel charges are subject to the same kind of motion. As the engine increases in speed, these movements are crowded into shorter and shorter periods of time and the effects of inertia cause additional wear problems and tend to decrease the efficiency of the engine.
The rotary internal combustion engine deals with some of the aforementioned problems, but the limited amount of time to carry out the various functions is still a very crucial factor, especially as the speed of the engine increases.